Looking back, and this weekend just past

[drwex]

Back at the end of August I posted that the signs pointed to a winter with above-average snowfall despite what the National Weather Service was saying. Score one for mom, eh?

I'm sure I wrote a specific request to the universe some time last year that I not have to deal again with my child's face covered in blood, but I can't search LJ to find it - feh. Clearly I didn't offer the appropriate propitiation, because the weekend ended with blood and trauma.

Normal kid accident: L was bouncing on his bed, slipped, and slammed his head into the wood headboard. It's a minor cut, but like all face wounds it bled a lot. Bleeding stopped with moderate pressure, we cleaned up, iced it, and got him to bed as it was close to bedtime. I checked for pupil dilation and eye-tracking pain or difficulty. No problems there. If it had happened mid-day we might have taken him in for stitches, but really those are cosmetic. He'll have an interesting little scar.

We got VERY lucky. The cut is less than a centimeter from his eyeball. He has a nice little shiner and is eager to tell everyone about it. *headshake*

Saturday we spent ALL FRELLING AFTERNOON buying a car. Details under the cut. It's a 2009 Toyota Matrix. It's silver. I don't much like it (I think the rear window is too tiny and I don't like the visual angles of the sides) but it's not my car. It'll get hella better mileage than the minivan and we'll figure something out for road trips.


We bought an '09 for several reasons. Our goal had been to get an '08 and Pygment had negotiated a very good price. We went to NH in the mistaken belief that would save us MA sales tax (no such luck) and to a dealer that we thought could get us the '08 model we wanted.

There was a whole sub-saga involving digging out a Matrix '08 from a totally snowed-in remote lot so I could test-drive it. That took a good long while, and eventually I got to drive it. The engine is a tad underpowered and it revs high. My biggest issue with the car is what I consider crappy rear visibility, but Pygment really had her heart set on this car, so.

Then we started the negotiations. The dealer mostly didn't want to stick to what had been said on the phone because they would have had to do a swap or buy to get the model we wanted and with the rebate factored in it would have lost them money (we were paying a bit under invoice, plus a 750 rebate). I foresaw them failing to get us the '08 and more dragged-out drama. They pulled the usual "get the manager" thing twice but we weren't budging. He wasn't happy, so he offered to sell us a new '09 off the lot at the same amount-below-invoice as the '08. No rebate and the '09s cost more.

From his point this was a win since even at below-invoice he'd make money on the '09 whereas selling us the '08 would've been a loser. The total price difference on the deal was about 1600. I decided to go for the '09 because it has three things that the '08 didnt: side airbags (meh), ABS (important to me), and a slightly larger rear window (it's about 1.5" taller than the '08 by my rough hand measure). I know that a good driver can do as well as an ABS but I like the automated system.

Once we had a number on that car we started to talk trade-in. The minivan is a PoS. We've poured money into it like nothing and stuff keeps breaking. Blue book on the car is $2k. Dealer came back offering half that, and looking all pleased with himself. I told the kids to put their coats on, that we were leaving. I told the dealer I knew what blue book was and that I wanted 2k. Two rounds later they dug in their heels at 1750, which I took. I doubt they'll make any money on THAT, but maybe they can strip enough parts. It also makes the minivan Not My Problem, which is worth some money to me.

They also threw in a full tank of gas ($30) and a set of floor mats/guards ($300). Probably not the best negotiation of my life, but not horrible. We also got a half-point lower financing rate through them than AAA was willing to offer.


The dealership had a kids play area, which was a huge win as the hours stretched out. We also had fun chatting with a family that turned out to be Syrian. Watching their four-year-old daughter trying to explain to my four-year-old what "Arabic" meant (turns out it means she doesn't eat pork) was cute. And they had an adorable 8-month-old baby.

Unfortunately, for no discernable reason, my back decided to have a very bad seizure while we were standing around. Two days of mega-dose NSAIDS and lots of hot packs later I'm not in horrible shapw but I'm not comfortable either.

Fortunately, Sunday was just gaming, which involved only sitting about and not even rolling dice. We made reasonable progress on stuff that usually drags out and bores people. Spreadsheets and time-graphs ftw.

This was supposed to be a quiet weekend, without a lot going on. Do such things exist?

Comments

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

I also predicted a winter with above-average snowfall, but people laugh at me when I make forecasts based on the appearance of wooly-bear caterpillars.

Caterpillars suck at five-day forecasts, but they tend to nail the season-long stuff.

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

This was supposed to be a quiet weekend, without a lot going on. Do such things exist?

Yes, but only spontaneously. If you try to plan them that way, it inevitably turns out to be a busy weekend.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

Actually, if I was downsizing from a minivan to something like a Matrix, I'd start to care more about side air bags as a potentially useful feature. I'm with you on its visibility, but it's definitely more fun to drive than a minivan.
What m/m was the PoS minivan, btw?

[drwex]

2000 Mazda MPV

You're right that side airbags are probably a valuable safety feature, though I haven't seen any data on how effective they are. Also, one hopes never to use them, whereas I find the ABS on my Subaru engage a couple times a month. So I'm more aware of ABS as a safety feature.